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The Pentagon has said that it has begun laying off some of its 46,000 temporary and contract workers and is cutting maintenance on ships and military hardware, as it prepares for potentially drastic defence cuts. "We're trying to minimize the harm to defence but we need to take some actions now to avoid larger harm later," Deputy Defence Secretary Ash Carter said Friday.

Carter said the US military had to start slowing its spending rate given the threat of automatic budget cuts that are due to kick in after March 1, if Congress fails to break a political stalemate. "This is what we're doing now to slow our spend rate," he said.

The Pentagon would face roughly $50 billion in reductions and given the March 1 deadline, would have only five months left in the current fiscal year to absorb them, he told AFP and several other news outlets.

The Pentagon's 46,000 temporary and contract employees are "all now subject to release," he said. The workers would either be laid off or not have their contracts renewed, except for those performing jobs deemed vital for the war or core missions, he said. The department has already announced a freeze on the hiring of civilians.

"For example, the navy is going to cancel maintenance of 30 ships that is scheduled for the third and fourth quarters of this year," Carter said.